Britain’s prime minister and Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, was born in Surrey and represents a London constituency. He is a man of the south.
After the past week of turmoil, he looks to have a growing problem in the north. There may be perilous times ahead for the prime minister.
Last week was a disaster for Starmer as his deputy prime minister and Labour’s deputy leader, the formidable northerner Angela Rayner, quit after it emerged she inadvertently underpaid stamp duty on a flat. While Reform UK’s Nigel Farage postured as prime minister-in-waiting, the latest bout of Labour turmoil forced Starmer into a wide-ranging reshuffle of his cabinet and junior ministers.
Only last Monday, he had announced “phase two” of his 14-month-old government. It lasted less than five days. What is in store in phase three?
RM Block
Starmer has rejigged his government to counter the threat from the anti-immigration outfit Reform, which polls suggest might trounce Labour in a general election if it was tomorrow.
It isn’t due until 2029. Much can happen in four years.
Moving Shabana Mahmood to the job of home secretary signals a clampdown on migration in a fightback against Reform. She is associated with the “blue Labour”, the party’s socially conservative wing. It is culturally closer to the profile of some Reform supporters, albeit Mahmood is a Muslim.
The UK government has also signalled it will move asylum seekers to military sites, away from hotels that were the scene of a summer of right-wing protests.
Yet, immigration isn’t Labour’s only challenge. The budget on November 26th will further stretch Britain’s ailing national finances.
Meanwhile, Mahmood has also been touted as a potential replacement for Rayner as Labour deputy leader. That might please Starmer’s team, which fears a divisive tussle for the position with the party’s restive left wing. Ultimately, the contest will be decided by a vote of party members.
But what of Starmer’s own position? Labour doesn’t have the same history of regicide as the Tories. But such has been the upheaval in Labour’s short stint in government, there is a palpable sense of unease on its backbenches. This is where Starmer’s northern problem comes in.
In speculation about who might rival him as Labour leader if he were put under pressure, attention often rests on Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham. The former MP and self-styled “King of the North” has clashed with Starmer in the past, although he has avoided open conflict since Labour entered government.
But trouble may be brewing anyway. Burnham appeared on BBC News on Sunday morning to criticise Starmer’s party management. He warned him to listen more to his backbenchers. He name-checked a northern MP, Rachael Maskell (York Central), who lost the whip in the welfare rebellion, as one treated harshly.
When Burnham was asked by BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg who might make a good Labour deputy leader, he named another northerner, Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh, whom Starmer sacked last November. The body count of Labour MPs turfed out in the reshuffle is also dominated by northerners, many in Burnham’s Manchester sphere of influence.
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Apart from Rayner, who quit, Lucy Powell (Manchester North) was sacked as leader of the house. Jim McMahon (Oldham West) was evicted from the housing department. Wajid Khan, a peer from Burnley, was sacked as faith minister.
Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port) was let go from employment rights. Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East in Manchester) tweeted goodbye to his role as aviation minister. Maria Eagle (Liverpool Garston) was sacked from the ministry of defence.
Starmer’s team might not agree, but the reshuffle had all the appearance of a purge of northerners.
The Labour Party conference in Liverpool this month will be interesting.
